Intermountain Healthcare has created two COVID-19 Response Teams that will deploy to New York City this week. This is in response to hundreds of Intermountain clinicians expressing interesting in helping states facing major surges in COVID-10 cases and experiencing severe staffing shortages.
Intermountain has partnered with two hospitals, both located in the New York City area.
Each Intermountain team will have 50 caregivers who will serve for a maximum of 14 days. These voluntary teams are made up of physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, respiratory therapists, and other caregivers.
Dr. Paul Krakovitz, Intermountain Healthcare’s chief medical officer for specialty based care said in a prepared statement that he’s incredible proud that so many caregivers want to help others in need. “Not only will they provide care for patients in New York,” he said, “they will bring back knowledge and experience to share with their Utah colleagues that will help us serve Utah patients.” Dr. Kravitz says Intermountain has the capacity right now to share its staff with others in the middle of their COVID-19 surge.
The first team is scheduled to fly out of Salt Lake City on Tuesday, April 14th.
Experts anticipate that Utah’s COVID-19 surge will happen in May or June, so caregivers will be back to the Intermountain service area when help is needed most.
Intermountain Healthcare operates the Park City and Heber City hospitals.